All lovers of the venerable Quicken program, most of whom are still using Quicken 2007, should be at Google Monday 21st March, 2016, to see two of the Quicken team dempo Quicken 2016 and the new Quicken app. More info at svmug.org

Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer at SVMUG

Bryan Chaffin will be at the SVMug meeting at Google to ptresent "Today's Apple in Context" He will examine some of the biggest issues swirling around Apple and put them into context. Is Apple working on a car? Yes. Can Apple compete with Google Now? Not really. Is the Apple Watch a gotta-have device? Probably not. Is Apple getting too big for its corporate britches? Not by a long shot. These short answers are surrounded by a lot of baggage, and Bryan will offer his perspective based on 18 years of covering Apple. More info at svmug.org

New O'Reilly Partner Program

O'Reilly have a new partner program, replacing the old discount book program - now it's all about digital (webinars, training courses, ebooks, etc.). Here's their announcement:

"We're excited to let you know about the new O'Reilly Partner Program http://www.oreilly.com/partner/. As a partner, we give you regular content and ask that you share it with your members through mailings, newsletters, meeting announcements, and social media. We've phased out offering free print books and replaced it with digital content such as video training courses, webcasts, reports, and ebooks that we'd like you to share with your group.

We're still offering all of our partners a great discount on O'Reilly products and events and invite you to join the new program http://www.oreilly.com/partner/. If you've already signed up, then you're all set.

We know that many of you donate your time and we thank you for doing your part to make these important communities happen. We're happy to support you in these endeavors and look forward to working with you."

MacWorld magazine closes down

Charles Gousha of SVMUG has posted some info on thie sad demise of Macworld magazine:

"As some have heard, Macworld Magazine has made a major transition this week. Since some of these folks have been kind enough to present on various subjects at our SVMUG meetings, I thought a digest of known information would be useful.

Macworld Magazine has closed up shop as a magazine. The print edition will stop publication, as will the electronic editions on Newsstand, Xinio and others. The last issue will apparently be the November one, with a farewell statement in the front by exiting editor-in-chief Jason Snell.

Macworld.com will continue to publish, but as a Mac news web page, similar to… well, similar to the ones listed above. The editorial staff has been largely let go, and the web site will instead rely on freelance journalists for most of its content.

Jason Snell — quit. His Clockwise podcast is moving to a new distributor, The Incomparable will continue, and he is starting a new podcast Upgrade.
Serenity Caldwell — quit/laid off. She’ll be working for iMore next month.
Roman Loyola, Dan Frakes, Dan Moren, Dan Miller, Philip Michaels — laid off. No info on what they’re doing next.

I expect that most of these folks will still be heard often on the podcast circuit. Many of them also have books published. I encourage you to find those books and purchase them, for the sake of the whatever residuals they may get from those purchases.

Macworld Magazine has been a cornerstone of the Mac community since its beginning more than 30 years ago. But as time has progressed, the Internet has done too good a job of offering news, commentary and community more rapidly than any print publication can approach. The one thing it offered better than anyone — thoughtful and considered analysis — has not been enough to keep it afloat.

I’d like to give a serious round of thanks to all of the departing staff at Macworld, plus their cohorts in years past that made the Magazine so central to the Mac community. Much of who we are came from them. I wish them the most in their new pursuits as they go on from here."

Dan Hughes of MacPhun software will be at Google's Bodega Bay Tech Talk Room on Monday 19th May for the SVmug meeting. Macphun Software is quickly becoming a powerhouse in the photo post-processing realm. They have several of the top 13 photo editing apps in the Mac App Store. This special presentation for svmug will cover Macphun's three professional quality tools: Snapheal Pro, Intensify Pro, and Focus 2 Pro. These work as standalone photo editing applications or as plugins to Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture. Come along to learn the benefits of using this powerful yet simple software to get the most out of your photos. Also there - Dan Reed on cool HTML5 slideshows.

MacWorld 2014

Sorry to be a little late commenting on MacWorld (or MacWorld/iWorld!) this year. I must confess to being a little dosappointed at the exhibition floor - a lot of people gave rather lame excuses for why they were not here this year and I felt that the pickings were rather slim as a consequence. However, I did buy some stuff to help in my music career from Airturn (you want to be able to turn the page on your iPad without taking your hand off the guitar, right?), although I nearly missed them as they didn't have a booth but only a small stand in the Appaloosa section. I also got a free beer by downloading the Kamino app and following the route to the Thirsty Beer Brewing Company (great beers, by the way!). I'm going to check out this app when I'm in Chicago next month.

I know a lot of people who are keen on standing while working - sadly, I didn't win the raffle for this one, which was very popular. I guess I'll have to go on sitting at my desk for now,

Robotics are potentially cool, but not quite ready for prime time. I wasted precious hours waiting for the robotic segway to come down the corridor and roll right past me.

This was actually my favorite booth - see my ridiculous attempt to make a flip book here:

There will be an SVMUG meeting at the Asilomar room in Building 1900 at Google tonight featuring Evernote - wish I could be there, because it's a cool & useful app. Meanwhile, here are some photos from the latest iPhone launch in Xi'an & Beijing, China (just in case you thought that the Chinese were not interested in iPhones any more, I can tell you that that this definitely not the case):

And the Steve Jobs movie is out in Beijing, too(maybe it's more credible in Mandarin):

SMUG Newsletter Archives

In the absence of meetings, I have not been idle, as I fired up my time machine to go all the way back to December 1984 in the SMUG archives, reading (and scanning) every newsletter I could find in the many folders & boxes bequeathed to me by previous board members. Of course, I had other motives, such as actually being able to park the car in the garage, but it turned out to be a fascinating journey through Mac (& SMUG) history. You can check it out on our Archive page. And, if any members can trace the missing copies, or still have them (check out your attic or garage!) we'd love to fill in the gaps in our history - for some reason, you'll see that all of 2000 is missing, along with substantial parts of 2001, 1991, 1990, and a few random months elsewhere. It would be great to have a full count!

June 4th 2013

Unfortunately, our presenter has had to cancel so the June 4th meeting has been canceled, too. Watch this space for more information on upcoming presentations and check out our newsletter here.

February 4th 2013 MacWorld/iWorld roundup

Let's hope we all get to meet up at some point at the 3
days of fun, facts & festivities now known as MacWorld/iWorld. We'll
be debriefing from the event(s) -not certain what we'll be bringing, but
there'll be facts, there'll be presentations, there'll be the usual prizes
to raffle off. See you there!

December 10th 2012

Among other things (did I hear pumpkin pie?), Apple iOS
writer, developer & trainer KevinMcNeish will be joining us virtually
from the East Coast to helpus unleash our own inner iOS Developer: based
on the maturity of the latest iPhone and iPad App development tools released
by Apple, it's finally within the reach of non-programmers to get into the
rewarding work of App development. In this session you will see a demonstration
of Apple's Xcode tools as an App is built while you watch. You will be amazed
at how much you can do initially without writing any code. After a prototype
App is built, you will see how you can learn the basic principles of Apple's
Objective-C programming to create a fully functioning real-world App and
unleash the programmer within! Kevin will be offering both a free copy of the
first book in his new book series, "Book 1: Diving In", to
raffle at the meeting (it's available on the iBookstore for the iPad or on
Amazon for the Kindle (or any other device with the Kindle Reader App) as
well as a discount on his January class: iOS App Development for Non-Programmers.

Smuggers may be relaxing at the Mac Expo in Petaluma this
month( see our last post), but there are other events coming up as well,
not least David Pogue's webcast on his reaction to Mountain Lion and the
new iPhone 5. Those of you who don't have other things to do, or can get
out of them, can tune in to the webcast on October 11 at 10AM Pacific Daylight
Time - sign up here: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=519018&s=1&k=6CE55D0549E16854B449E9AB39858825

Those members of the group intertested in diving in to
creating their own iOS apps may be interested in the free book by Kevin McNeish
aimed at helping new developers writing for the iPhone and iPad - it's available
free at the iTunes store or at the website http://www.iOSAppsForNonProgrammers.com on
Oct 10 & 11.

Meanwhile, as promised, Apple in China:
Apple Store Beijing
Apple resellers were a lot more common than actual Apple stores
Shanghai had the coolest Apple Store
Apple ads are pretty much the same whatever the language-this was on the
Shanghai metro

Summer 2012

SMUG is on hiatus over the summer - watch for messages
from Shanghai & Beijing coming soon! Meanwhile, if you're missing the
Mac User interaction, you might want to think
about attending the upcoming Mac
Expo in Petaluma. The 19th annual Macintosh
Computer Expo offers 15+ booths and a dozen informational sessions about
applications, productivity, and entertainment on the Apple platform. Software
and accessories are available for try-out and purchase at the booths. Speakers
include noted Mac authorities Christopher Breen, Derrick Story, and Tom Negrino.
Sessions include Parenting in the Internet Age, Getting Creative with Photoshop,
Ditch Paper, Go Digital, Get Roaring with Mountain Lion, Online Reputation
Management and much more.

May 7th, 2012

SuperSync will be here
- learn how to manage you iTunes library across multiple computers! And we'll
have Shareware and the chance to win Audio
Hijack Pro and more!

March 12, 2012 Sandvox

Dan Wood from Karelia software
will be here to talk about the latest version of their Sandvox website
creator, a great alternative to iWeb now that MobileMe is about to disappear.
Also, we'll have a variety of Shareware - photo apps and more - and some
debriefing from this year's MacWorld Expo.

Dave Sparks, aka MacSparky, blogger, podcaster & author
will be here, in all-digital format, to talk about how to more efficiently
get through some of the things you do most on your Mac: Writing and tackling
your inbox; his new iPad book; and other related issues. Plus our famed end-of-year
party and Santa's Smug giveaways.

November 7, 2011 iChat, Final Cut - the
final cut?

We'll be attempting our first presentation via iChat this
week, exploring some of the sometimes weird capabilities of the well used
app. Plus, in the wake of the debacle over the "new" Final Cut,
reminiscent of what happened when Apple brought out a new version of iMovie
that took away many of the well-loved capabilities of the older version in
the name of making it more user-friendly for the mass consumer, Nico
Bellamy looks at what the fuss is all about there, demoing a few things,
even showing the odd movie or two (they may be very odd indeed - you'll see
what film students get up to when they get their hands on university equipment).
And of course, we have Owen Saxton with shareware and
we'll be giving away books on Steve Jobs, Lion and more!

For those of you who missed David Pogue's webinar
on OS X Lion, it's available here, including all the technical hiccups!

And, I almost forgot, it's election time - see the latest
newsletter for details.

Of course Pogue wrote his NY Times
column on Steve this week as well. And there's a nice tribute from onetime
Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki at CNET
here.

Some scenes outside the Palo Alto Apple Store:

October 3, 2011 Lost in the iCloud

One
of the many questions raised by the imminent demise of Apple's MobileMe service
relates to photo and video hosting. Where will we put our photos and videos
now, not to mention our data and blogs and webpages of other kinds we've
happily got used to using Apple's all-encompassing service for the last few
years?

In this month's meeting we explore some alternatives -
Yahoo's Flickr, Google's Picasa, SmugMug
& Vimeo amongst them, and try to come up with some recommendations. Plus
there'll be Shareware and a raffle of handy new guides to Apple's latest
OS, the sometimes alarming Lion.

September 12, 2011 Steve Shepard with Storyist

No
meeting on September 5th, of course - on September 12th Steve Shepard will
be here with the latest iteration of his Novelist & Screenwriters development
tool Storyist for all budding
storytellers out there, now available for the iPad! Plus the usual Q & A, Shareware and
software raffle.

August 8, 2011 The Lion Wakes Tonight

This
month's meeting of SMUG will be on the 2nd Monday of the month as a result
of a conflict with a SLAC conference taking place this week. So on Monday
8th August we'll be discussing the new version of Apple's OS X - Lion, or
10.7, how it works with the apps you've already got, or not, how it complements
your iPhone & iPad in ways you may or may not like, what's new and cool
(or is different from what you already know and like), etc. And of course,
Q & A, Shareware & cool giveaways.

Of course, the first Monday of the month is the 4th, when
you'll all be attending a much louder event, so SMUG is moved to the 2nd
week of the month once again.

This month we've got SMUG member Phil
Geller on the hardy
perrenial of computer and internet security, looking at AgileBits
iPassword app - and there will be prizes! - as well as Shareware, Q &
A and more - see the newsletter for details.

"with the development of HTML5, Abode Flash is no
longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of Web content" -
Steve Jobs, "Thoughts on Flash," April 2010

"Microsoft is announcing a new shift that leverages
the interest in HTML5 to deliver 'Web-connected and Web-powered' apps that
will run alongside legacy Windows apps on the forthcoming Windows 8" -
AppleInsider, June 2011

Yes, May 9, as SLAC will have pagan maypole dancing or
something on May 2. Steve Bellamy will demo iPhone and iPad Obsessive apps
for Photo Editing and more (no Angry Birds, we promise!). Plus Shareware for
larger computers, and great raffle prizes!

April 4, 2011 Steve Rokov from Splashtop

Enjoy all that your computer has to offer – remotely
from your mobile devices. With Splashtop® Remote, you can fully access
and control your PC in any way imaginable. Access your full iTunes™ or
Windows® Media library to watch videos and play music stored on your
PC. Play online Flash, as well as PC and Mac games. Work on your computer
documents, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, from your tablet or smartphone.
Plus Q & A, Shareware from Dave Aston and our raffle of both software
and bookware.

March, 2011

Reports of SMUG's death were fortunately much exaggerated,
and SLAC is allowing us back to the Redwood Room. However, we've learned
this too late to organize a meeting this month - our next meeting will instead
be on April 4. Watch this space for details! Meanwhile, Chuck Joiner's MUG
Calendar has us reprising last year's meeting with Bill Atkinson on March
8 - we wish, but it's not happening!

February 14, 2011

Our first meeting of the new year will be our last at SLAC,
so we're giving ourselves arousing sendoff from the Redwood Room with
things we learnt at MacWorld, while our presenter Cocoatech will show Path
Finder, a file browser for the Macintosh with such cool innovations as the
dual pane browser, tabs and bookmarks, and file list sorting and editing,
and we have prizes galore to give away in our raffle.

January 2011

Owing
to the holidays and the difficulty of booking the Redwood Room for a
later day, there will be no SMUG meeting in January. Don't forget MacWorld
Expo Jan 26-29 at the SF Moscone Center - hope to see you there! If not,
our next meeting will be on Monday February 14, 2011 (watch this page for
details, and/or of course wait for our monthly newsletter.)